Drill Instructor Yelling Good/Bad?

[soccerguy315]

If all the staff does is yell, personally I think the chances are pretty high that either

1. the people who are being yelled at will get angry / frustrated / not as productive.

2. the people being yelled at will start to tune the people yelling out.

[Einstein On The Beach]

There's nothing wrong with yelling, at all, as long as the class is conservative with it. And trust me, I got yelled at plenty, I also got better. All it does is build a little backbone, no reason to let all the kids be wimps. Of course, if the staff is treating members inhumanely or just being dicks, well of course that's a whole different ballgame, but otherwise, hooray for yelling.

Edited December 15, 2006 by Einstein On The Beach

[SpookyKid]

Wow, the one that comes to mind for me is Bob Smith from Regiment...man.

Bob? Ha!

Actually when I first heard it, I went "WTF!?! Someone taped John Brazale!!!" That brought back some memories. All that was missing was hearing "########" and "contras" and "SHUT THE H*** UP" 30 times.

(The ironic part was that I got along with the man and got a lot of good advice on show design from him.)

[kevingamin]

When I marched, we never had a drill instructor yell at any of us !! The instructors we had treated us with respect and that was given back to them by our performance.

There is a big difference between marine drill instructors and drum corps drill instructors.

Marine drill instrucors are paid to get you to hate them and teach you how to hate your enemy.

Drum corps drill instructors are paid to get you to get to another point on the field to complete a set pattern.

Drum corps is not a matter of life and death.

Treat the kids with respect and you will get more out of them.

Oh, believe me, if staff yelled at us, it was respectful, but necessary.

[JayM]

"I'm not mad..."

:P

Edited December 15, 2006 by Jayzer

[BozzlyB]

Yelling has it's time and place, too much and it just becomes commonplace and loses its effectiveness. I would say Jay Web, Blue Coats drum guy in the late 80's was one of the most intimidating instructors I've ever witnessed. Of course I was 14 and green as grass, and in a different corps, but still.

[Piper]

"Got yelled at by your instructor? Awwwww.......poor little baby.......did that big bad man yell at my little poopsie? You just take my hand and come home with mommy......we'll change your diapers and give you a nice warm bottle."

[liebot]

Another point: I think staffers yelling at kids demonstrates their knowledge of the activity and of marching less than other ways do. If a person's just saying "Hey you! You suck! Do it better!" the member's reaction might be "Who the #### is this guy?"

I know this sounds kind of ######-bagish, but if a staffer shows how much smarter than the kids he is when it comes to marching rather than just screaming that they're doing it wrong all the time, they're a. more likely to listen to his advice and b. more likely to respond positively when he does yell.

[flashofthunder]

"Loud motivation" is sometimes beneficial when done correctly and fairly.

However, there was a time when the person next to me in a set was out for visual block, and we were cleaning a FTL drill set. A tech thought I kept missing my pivot counts and was yelling at me over and over: "COME ON, FIX IT!" I couldn't figure out why I was being yelled at and I didn't know what to fix, until he was told there was a hole next to me. At that point, he seemed surprised and just walked away to another part of the form. His yelling at me in that particular instance was not beneficial, and was actually detrimental, due to the frustration that I felt at being unfairly called out over and over again. I got over it pretty quickly though(within the span of 30 seconds after some intense argument inside of my head), so there wasn't any harm done. However, I felt embarassed for being called out in front of the entire hornline over and over again for a mistake made by a tech.

I still think that yelling is ok, as long as it's done in instances where it actually helps. Sometimes a person needs to be snapped back into rehearsal, and calling him or her out for careless mistakes would certainly cause the mistake to be rectified quickly. The formula is simple: March your show well, and you don't get embarassed.

[EKBari]

Marine drill instrucors are paid to get you to hate them and teach you how to hate your enemy.

ummmmm... No.

Contrary to what you see on tv and the movies, drill instructors are there to get you to think and act a particular way. Much of which consists of breaking you down and rebuilding you. They have so many people coming and going they really don't have the time to "make somebody hate them" and could care less if you did or didn't. They have a finite amount of time to get you ready for duty and have to employ methods to get the most out of you in that short period of time.